GOOD NEWS: Succession
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
Succession
Like a lot of people in May, I watched the final episodes of Succession, a modern day King Lear that illustrates the hazards of transferring professional and family leadership from one generation to the next.
Whether in the boardroom, executive suite or family dinner table, what can funders, nonprofits, and families learn from an adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's greatest works?
Timing Is Nearly Everything
Successful transitions occur when organizations routinely invest in people to develop internal talent long before a transition is necessary. Rather than looking outside for future leaders, the most seamless transitions occur when internal heirs apparent are identified and nourished. Yes, there are times when outside leadership is preferable but ideally organizations promote from within, demonstrating a culture of valuing those who know the organization best. If your first conversation about succession happens after a leader announces her departure, you are behind the eight ball and likely to spend a lot of time and money with search consultants who may or may not deliver the person you need and want.
Remember Startups
Replication of the founder or longtime leader should not be your succession goal. Remember what it takes to launch and sustain a successful startup. Startups require a compelling visionary who is willing and able to sacrifice to get things off the ground. Founders possess an almost maniacal single-mindedness to create something from nothing, usually while surrounded by voices who say success is not possible. In addition to expert relationship building and follow through on even the most minor details, successful founders have a bias toward thinking and acting boldly. They ask, "Why not?" They take calculated risks. They don't easily take no for an answer and are comfortable being uncomfortable. Founders, especially, are a rare breed. The goal should be to succeed the outgoing leader, not find her clone.
Next Gen
Transferring leadership to the next generation of leaders is hard, especially if those would-be leaders have grown up with the largesse from the founder's or long-term leader's success or under their thumb. Entitlement and micromanagement are the enemies of drive and self-direction. Where do we find the next leaders and how are they formed? Although there is a role for degrees and certificates from schools claiming to produce leaders, the most formative learning experiences come from hard won wins and devastating setbacks. They are grounded in circumstances that require improvisation, innovation, and the real possibility of loss. Sort your candidate pool for demonstrated and sustained success, not expensive degrees, job titles, connected "right fits," and other proxies for privilege.
Off Ramps and On Ramps
Provide an off ramp for founders and other outgoing long-term leadership. Give the person leaving the opportunity to transfer knowledge in a dignified way that suits their and the organization's needs. Give the incoming leaders space by assuring distance between the outgoing leader and the organization. Support new leadership with targeted training and coaching from third parties. In short, gracefully get transitioning leadership out of the way and swiftly hand over executive responsibility and authority to the next chief. A belabored transition weakens the incoming leadership out of the gate and deprives them of their chance to lead.
Revel In Others Success
Especially for founding board members or chief executives, it can be hard to step back and let others take over. To his and his family's great disadvantage, Logan Roy (Succession’s tragic, patriarchal figure) never learned how much satisfaction he could gain by getting out of the way and watching his successors succeed. Instead, he made himself the focal point of every discussion, event, and decision, at the expense of everyone else. He lost the chance to experience the joy that comes from watching others take on new challenges and thrive. Those who should have inherited what he built never had the opportunity to fail, try again, gain confidence, build, and follow their own compass.
Letting go is hard, especially when a person pours everything they have into an organization or family by serving on the board, as a staff person, matriarch or patriarch. The time to start transitioning is well before there is a need by establishing a culture of growth and humility. Easy to write, really hard to do.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (7 minute watch)
"When you're playing a part that is removed in that way, yeah, it has an effect on you. You feel, 'Hang on, this is one of the greatest pieces of work I've ever been involved in.' And suddenly it's no more, but it's also - it reflects what our existence is about because we're here for a time and then we're gone." Brian Cox
Watch Here
One Last Time (4 minute listen)
"I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree, a moment alone in the shade, at home in this nation we've made." George Washington on declining to run for a third term as President, Hamilton.
Listen Here
Think Like a New Immigrant, Artisan, and Waitress (2 minute read)
"Pursue opportunities more energetically, persistently, and creatively than anybody else. Act with a YOLO attitude while remembering that anything new can be taken away in a flash. Do your work every day with so much pride and extra effort that you want to carve your initials into it. Be relentlessly entrepreneurial, change whatever you have control over, and find that new business or opportunity." Tom Friedman, Five Ways to Thrive in a Hyperconnected World
New Website for TTG
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